The present invention relates to a print system comprising a print engine for printing a receiving material, a plurality of holders, each for holding one type of receiving material and delivering this material to the print engine, a receiver for receiving jobs, a job being an order comprising printing information on one or more types of receiving material specified in said order, and a control system for planning jobs, by placing the jobs in a print queue in a sequence of finishing.
A print system of this kind is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,595. A job is programmed in a job program mode, a job ticket being displayed on a monitor screen. After the job has been programmed, it is moved from a memory to a print queue. The sequence of jobs in this queue is determined by priority allocated to each of the jobs and the time of arrival of the job in the queue. The print queue itself, at least the names of the jobs and the associated number, and a number of variables, such as the number of documents required and the type of receiving material required, are displayed on the screen if the operator of the print system so requests.
The print system at all times knows what type of receiving material is situated in each of the holders and also the different types of receiving material required for finishing a job in the print queue. In this way the system can always check whether the correct receiving material has been loaded to enable printing to start. If the correct receiving material is loaded in the holders, the job will be printed. If not, then the system will indicate to the operator what type of receiving material he should insert in one or more of the holders. If the receiving material required for the current job is present in sufficient quantity and there are one or more holders left for loading different receiving material, the operator can check whether the receiving material for the next job in the print queue is present in the holders. Thus before this next job is actually started, he can insert any receiving material not present for that job, so that the job can immediately start when the current job is completely finished.
A disadvantage of this known system is that the operator can have information concerning a following job only if the receiving material required for the current job is already loaded in the holders. This very considerably limits the operator's overview so that he feels as if he has little or no control over the print system. Another disadvantage is that a receiving material loaded must at all times be specified by the operator, even if the system has already indicated that a specific type of receiving material should be loaded. For example, if the system indicates that a receiving material of the type “A3, white, 160 g, relief” must be loaded, then after he has done this the operator must select these four settings in order to indicate that he has loaded the receiving material of the required type. This takes relatively considerable time and the fact that all the material properties have to be re-selected time and time again means that the operator is prone to making mistakes.
A print system of this kind is also known from EP 1 152 591. This system also has the disadvantage that the operator only receives information concerning the required receiving material for one job. He will have to insert a possibly requested type of receiving material before the system will give any information concerning a following job.
With respect to the previously described print system, this system has the advantage that the operator no longer has to specify an inserted type of receiving material, i.e. he can input all the characterising properties one by one when the system has requested a specific type of receiving material and the operator has inserted that type of material in response thereto. A confirmation of the fact that he has inserted the requested type of receiving material is sufficient. This confirmation may, for example be actuation of the “Start” button or closing the holder after the receiving material has been inserted. The disadvantage of this known system is that a complete specification of an inserted type of receiving material is always necessary if the operator decides to insert a receiving material in one of the holders without the system having reported the need for that type of receiving material.
A print system which obviates the latter problem is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,942. A receiving material holder in this system has a setting means on which there are pre-programmed a number of types of receiving materials which are frequently selected. If an operator of the system inserts one of these types of receiving material in the holder, he only has to set the setting means to the inserted type of receiving material. The system then knows of itself what type of receiving material has been inserted and the operator need not specify this in all its properties. In addition to the many types of receiving material used, he can use the known setting means also to select a non-predefined type by setting the said means to “Other”. This possibility is provided because it may happen that a different type of receiving material is loaded compared with one of the standard types. If the setting means is set to “Other” a dialogue with the operator follows so that he can define the inserted paper type.
A disadvantage of this known system is that the selection of “Other” will have to be made relatively frequently in an environment in which very many different types of paper are used, for example a central reproduction department of a large company or a job printer. As a result, the advantage of predefined types of receiving materials will be relatively insignificant. Another solution might be to offer many more of such predefined types of receiving materials on the setting means, but this in turn has the disadvantage that the means becomes less readily overviewed.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,504,556 a print system is known in which, starting from a list of predefined receiving materials, an operator can define an inserted type of receiving material by means of a drag-and-drop operation. The list includes a set of icons, each icon representing one type of receiving material. This list is in fact a library, which contains a large enumeration of receiving materials. If the operator wishes to insert one type of receiving material that is not yet included in the library, then he can make a new icon and define the associated type of receiving material.
A disadvantage of this known print system is that the list becomes cumbersome in environments where very many types of receiving material are used. To search for the correct icon in the list may then take so much time that the gain in time obtained by no longer having to input the separate properties of the receiving material is completely lost.